During the opening of the Winter Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), during the discussion of the Bureau and Standing Committee progress report, Tiny Cox of the Netherlands has praised Albania, Andorra, Georgia, Iceland, Latvia, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Serbia, and Slovenia as at least half of the parliaments of these nations had women members in the previous year.
“I am particularly calling out Armenia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom whose delegations had fewer than a quarter female representation. I urge these delegations to come with a more balanced composition next year,” he said.
Armenia PACE delegation has eight members, of which 4 are substitutes. Only two of the eight members are women: Naira Zohrabyan from the Prosperous Armenia faction, and Tatevik Hayrapetyan from the My Step faction.
According to the data of the report presented by the Dutch delegate, last year, one out of three PACE delegates was a woman – about 34%. This figure is a little higher than the average of national parliaments (29%).
“In any case, there is a long road ahead to ensure real equality. We all have to work harder to increase the number of women in PACE,” the delegate has noted.
He has also pointed out that women are not proportionately represented in leadings positions of committees and as vice-chairpersons of PACE.
“Achieving gender equality, the rapid and effective increase of female representation is not only an issue of enhancing a spectrum of views but also human rights because gender equality is a human right,” he said.
During the winter session of the PACE, which was held from January 27 to 31, the composition of six delegations was challenged on grounds of gender inequality. The mandates of delegates from Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal, Poland, Macedonia, San Marino were not approved on this basis; the matter was referred to the Rules of Procedure and Equality and Non-Discrimination Committees.
34% of the delegates were women
According to the presented report, in 2019, 34% of PACE delegates were women. The figure was the same in 2018, while in 2017 it was at 37%. The report notes that the PACE rule that mandates the inclusion of women in the delegations in accordance with the proportionality of their representation in national parliaments has had a positive impact. Despite this, there are delegations where female representation is bigger than in their national parliaments.
The authors of the report note that in the previous year, the Assembly’s presidency was held by a woman, and the percentage of women as Vice-Presidents of the Assembly increased from 33% to 41% while the percentage of women Bureau members decreased from 47% to 42%. This reflects the decrease in the number of women as Chairpersons of committees (4 out of 9 compared to 6 out of 9 in 2018). Women’s representation in committees is 32%.
The tables presented in the report does not reflect a happy picture for Armenia’s gender indicators. Women’s representation, as we’ve already mentioned is 25%. Lithuania, Lichtenstein, Ireland, Moldova, Morocco, San Marino, and other countries have the same figure. There are other nations with a lower figure than that of Armenia’s, i.e., Poland (17%), Romani and Slovakia (both 20%), the United Kingdom (24%), etc.
Women’s representation is particularly high in the delegations of Slovenia (83%), Serbia (71%), Iceland (67%), Finland (60%), etc.
